Letter to Bertalan Szemere, October 8, 1859

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 8 October 1859


First published in Revue d'histoire comparée, t. IV, Nos. 1-2, 1946
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO BERTALAN SZEMERE[1]

IN PARIS

London, 8 October 1859

My dear Franck,

I have received your last letter, in which you appear to suppose that, as yet, nothing has been done in the affair K. Now, this is altogether a mistake.

1) On Thursday (Sept. 29), I sent you a copy of the London Free Press d.d. 28 Sept., containing a statement headed: Particulars of K's Transaction with L. N. On the very day of its issue that number of the F. P. was forwarded to all the newspaper offices of London. The Times published its article in K's favour[2] only after having made sure from the F. P., that K. is as venal a fellow as the Times writers.

For the case of the number of the F. P., sent to you, having been intercepted by the French Post-Office, I enclose the article above said in this letter.

2) The statement of the F. P. has been reprinted in English, Scotch and Irish provincial papers. A literal translation of it has, by friends of mine, been inserted in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung[3] and the Bremer Weserzeitung. Another German translation is said to have appeared in the Berlin 'Nationalzeitung'.

3) Simultaneously with your letter, I received to-day the New York Tribune d.d. September 24 which, under the title 'K. and L. N.', brings an elaborate article of mine, filling two and a half columns, and put forward in a prominent place of the paper. The Tribune having always had a faible[4] for K., and P. being its London correspondent, this publication is a real success, the more so, since P. is nominally denounced in the article, and the apologetical passages of his own letter to the New Y. T.[5] are ridiculed. There exist at least some hundred smaller American papers, published in the English language, which receive their mot d'ordre from the Tribune, and, consequently, will reprint that article. The German American press, from New York to San Francisco, will, by this time, have translated the article into the Teutonic vernacular.

Moreover, it should not be forgotten that New York is the centre of the Hungarian emigration in America.

If you [should] be unable to get the Tribune d.d. Sept. 24., I shall send you the article on the condition of your remitting it, since I possess no other copy, and stand in need of it should it be replied to by P.

4) K's letter to Mac Adam,[6] on which the Times leader remarks, has been generally ridiculed by the London papers, so much so that K. induced that same Mac Adam to declare in the same papers, that the letter was a private letter and not meant for publication.[7] As a specimen, of the manner in which K's letter was handled, I enclose a leader from the London Daily Telegraph.

5) If you can forward me any further particulars on K's proclamations and intrigues in Hungary, they will be very welcome, and are sure to find their way into the Press.

6) My stationer was unable to get the Times' copies you ask for. Generally, some days after their issue, London Daily papers are difficult of procuring.

7) The remark on Perczel in the F. P. article is based on a public declaration of his. I thought fit to allude to it, in order to throw confusion into the ranks of K's partisans as to the source from which the information proceeds.

8) From the note enclosed, you will see that the English merchant, on further consideration, declines entering upon the wine-affair. The German, I spoke of, has returned to the Continent. Thus I see no prospect of pushing on this affair in England.

As to my brother-in-law,[8] I have written to him, but not yet received his answer.

Yours truly

Williams[9]

  1. ↑ Marx's letters of 26 September and 8 October 1859 to Bertalan Szemere, the former Prime Minister of the Hungarian revolutionary government, is evidence of his desire to strengthen contacts with refugee Hungarian revolutionary democrats. In these letters Marx criticises Kossuth's attitude in the years of emigration, in particular his tendency to take Napoleon III's demagogy in the nationalities question at face value, and his illusions concerning the possibility of using the French Emperor as an ally in the struggle for Hungary's liberation. This criticism does not extend to Kossuth's activity during the 1848-49 revolution, when he headed the revolutionary forces fighting for Hungary's national independence and, in the words of Engels, was 'a truly revolutionary figure, a man who in the name of his people dares to accept the challenge of a desperate struggle' (Vol. 8, p. 227).—493, 504
  2. ↑ 'One of the most remarkable results...'. The Times, No. 23428, 4 October 1859.
  3. ↑ [K. Marx,] 'Ludwig Kossuth und Louis Napoleon', Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 276, 3 October 1859 (supplement).
  4. ↑ weak point
  5. ↑ [F. Pulszky,] 'From Our Own Correspondent. Monday, August 7, 1859', New York Daily Tribune, No. 5720, 23 August 1859.
  6. ↑ Kossuth's letter to J. M'. Adam was published in The Times, No. 23428, 4 October 1859.
  7. ↑ J. M' Adam, 'To the Editor of The Times', The Times, No. 23431, 7 October 1859.
  8. ↑ Johann Carl Juta
  9. ↑ conspiratorial pseudonym of Karl Marx